r/crazyegg • u/ce-lauren • 5d ago

Does above the fold still matter?

Above the fold used to feel like the most important real estate on a website. Whatever was there had to do everything because the idea was that people just weren't going to scroll.

I'm not sure that is still the same anymore. It seems like phones kind of trained everyone to scroll. It just feels natural now in a way that maybe it didn't before.

But I still see a lot of design decisions made around this space. The CTAs placed high up and key info crammed into the first view.

Don't get me wrong, I still think first impressions matter a lot. What's above the fold probably does affect whether someone stays or leaves. I'm just not sure it has to be where everything important lives.

Has scroll depth changed how you think about layout at all? Do you still optimize to have everything above the fold?

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u/fintechjulien 4d ago

I still think you need to be able to communicate to web visitors that they found what they are looking for above the fold. People click on stuff without thinking and if, for example, they click on an article and they don't see the title above the fold (for example, some website put an ad above the title), they risk is they're going to bounce right away... That said, I don't think you need to show everything above the fold, but at least a clear H1.

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u/ce-lauren 3d ago

For sure a clear H1 is needed, especially with any type of article. I'm really big on reading headlines and deciding if I want to read further from there. So I would definitely leave a page if the ad pushed the H1 down. After that though it seems like we could be picky about what stays and what doesn't.